Tag: bike lanes

Barstow near Fresno State to get bike lanes

A critical east-west connection in Fresno will be getting bike lanes in the near future, as Fresno State received a grant that will help fund construction.

The following map shows Fresno State and existing the bike infrastructure. Barstow is the only east-west route, as Shaw has been designed to be very dangerous for bicycles. The A-B line is the rough extent of phase 1.

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Back in August, the state released the list of projects to be funded under the Active Transportation Program for 2014.

Here’s what Streetsblog wrote:

Under the ATP, the CTC is preparing to distribute $221 million for projects and programs in two categories: a statewide competition and a separate competition for small rural and urban projects. A third category of funds will be distributed later this year through the state’s largest Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) (more on that below). Click to read more!

One councilman destroys a road diet three years in the making

The events of this post took place last Thursday, at the city council meeting. I didn’t write about it that night because I was furious. Four days later, I’m still upset about what went down, and how easily it was to ignore years of public and community work, and a panel of technical experts.

What happened is that Fresno County proposed a road diet on Fruit Ave, between Shaw and Herndon. Like all road diets, this was to take a 4 lane road, and make it three lanes, with two bike lanes. It was pretty much a sure thing, so much so that a month ago, I wrote about it saying we could expect to see the new diet, and new bike lanes, by this fall. Click to read more!

Fresno to get a couple new bike lanes

Two bike lane projects are going forward this year in Fresno, one of which is a road diet.

The first is the “Shields Ave Bike Lane Improvement” Project which

will infill gaps in existing bike lane paths along Shields Avenue between West Ave. and Chestnut Ave. The Shields Avenue Bike Lane Improvements project will also install parking bays to accommodate on-street parking, therefore providing for a safer bicycle route along a major east/west corridor along Shields Avenue.

 Shields currently has some bike lanes, but the project will apparently make them continuous. It was scheduled for this spring, but due to a problem with a contractor, it’s been delayed a few months. In all, its a 4.5 mile project. Click to read more!

Next GV Urban project revealed

Earlier this year, GV Urban proposed their newest residential project downtown, around the site of the former Met museum. This week they go before the planning commission with their next project, this time on Broadway.

The company has focused almost exclusively on Fulton, so it’s nice to see them branch out a block over to Broadway, which has been neglected. For those not familiar with the area, Fulton is the main street, and has Broadway on one side and Van Ness on the other as other major streets in the area. Today, Broadway is mostly auto-focused businesses, and most of them are closed. Click to read more!

An analysis of Fresno/Clovis rail-trail (3): Old Town to Sierra

Sorry for the huge gaps of time between these posts, but they actually take a fair amount of time to put together.

Today we continue our look at the Fresno-Clovis Rail Trail.

We started south of Shaw, and made our way to Gettysburg.

Then we went from there onwards towards Old Town.

Now we keep going, through Old Town and then north of it to Sierra. Theoretically, the Old Town section of the trail would be the nicest and busiest, since it’s a very popular destination. Sadly, it’s one of the worst section of the trail. For one block, the trail completely disappears. There are multiple intersections that do nothing to accommodate trail users, and the trail has very little connection into the part of Old Town that people care about. Indeed, you can shop, dine and explore without even noticing the trail exists.
  Click to read more!

Fresno State: $4 million to turn trees to asphalt

If you’ve heard only one thing about the California State University system in the past couple of years, then it’s probably the words “budget cuts”. Details like “enrollment slashed” or “tuition hiked”. “Classes eliminated”. Remaining classes “doubling in size”. That’s what we’ve been reading in the news every month for the past few years.

So it’s especially maddening to see this piece of news which hit every station in Fresno today.

Fresno State faculty members gathered Thursday to express dismay and confusion over the university’s decision to chop down 160 mature trees, making room for 600 more parking spaces on the east side of campus. Click to read more!

Clovis PD launches bike registration program, profiling included

The local ABC news station has a good story about Clovis PD taking bike theft seriously. Due to an increase in bike thefts, one of which I talked about here, the city is pushing to get people to register their bike serial numbers with the city so it can be easier to recover them.

Since the beginning of the year, 100 bikes have been reported stolen and even though 30 have been recovered, a very small percentage have been returned to their owners.

That’s because many people don’t know their bike’s serial numbers. The new program launched by the Clovis Police Department allows people to register their bikes with the police department so they can be more easily returned. Click to read more!

Final Gettysburg bike lane community meeting today

When Fresno makes changes to a road, there is usually very little public outreach. What typically happens is that Public Works says a change is needed, it goes out to bid, the council approves the bid, and the change comes. That’s how it has typically been for small changes like repaving and larger changes like widening roads. Many times, the public doesn’t find out about the proposal until they read the city council agenda where the bid will get voted on.

Last year, councilman Larry Westerlund decided that the process wasn’t working well, at least when the project in question was a road diet/bike lane repaving project. So he ordered up a community meeting which allowed him to delay the bike lane project for a good six months. (Part of that delay was because paving season ended). Click to read more!

Bike lanes: Keeping fast cars safe from opening doors

You know how it seems like most American bike lanes are almost entirely in the door zone?

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And you know how most local governments will claim it’s just an unfortunate side effect of limited road space?

Well, the Fresno Public Works Department has decided to be extremely candid about the REAL benefit of bike lanes. That is, bike lanes are great because they keep drivers safe from those pesky doors that may suddenly be opened.

Behold the department’s report to the city council about an upcoming road diet.

This Gettysburg Avenue Bike Lanes project will improve Gettysburg Avenue by installing on-street bicycle lanes and creating a center two-way left turn lane between Fresno Street to Winery Avenue. No parking will be impacted along Gettysburg Avenue and through vehicles will be separated from opening car doors by the bicycle lanes. Click to read more!

More thoughts about Philly – East Cost Trip Part 3

Here are the rest of my thought about Philly, in which I spent a whole day! Part 2 is here.

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When we left off, it was evening and I was walking around center city. This was on a Monday, and things were oddly quiet. Certainly not the hustle and bustle of NYC.

I noticed an oddly placed sharrow for bikes.

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The city has great signage for pedestrians. Lots of signs and even maps. This was was oriented so the top of the map is “forward” making it very useful for pedestrians. My one complaint was the location up there makes it hard to read for those with poor eyesight.
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Philly has much more extensive bike infrastructure than I was expecting. When bike lanes didn’t fit, they had bus/bike lanes. One thing is that they could do a better job painting them. Click to read more!